Dakar SILK WAY RALLY

De Villiers back in business !

The president of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev blessed the rally for lucky way and gave start for the race at Saturday’s shiny day.
Inspirited with the welcome atmosphere South African Giniel De Villiers from Volkswagen won the prologue just eight month after he won the Dakar. In the truck race the fastest was Dakar champion too : Firdaus Kabirov.
On the square in front of Tatneft arena predominate friendly and in the same time red carpet air. In the end on the podium had been brought flags of 25 countries, by the amount of the representatives participate in the rally. After, the 51 cars and 20 trucks allowed to start appeared one by one in front of the public.
The super special stage was 2013 meters long and created by five times Dakar champion Vladimir Chagin, so the supporters could enjoy jumps, skidding and even first difficulties which got some crews sand trapped. But the result of the super special won’t take to account in general set-off and the next stage Kazan-Buguruslan start will be given in the start’s numbers order.
Volkswagen team with it’s four favorite crews proved their potential. Newcomer Nasser All Attiyah from Qatar temporary had been headed classification table, he made the stage in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. But legendary Spanish Carlos Sainz made it 1 second faster. The last to start Giniel De Villiers, the champion of “Dakar 2009”, on the Race Touareg improved the result by 4 seconds. And it’s just on 2 kilometres stage !
A short break in working hours allowed the Prime-Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov to drive a KAMAZ-master truck, at the wheel of which the famous driver won many famous national and international races. A psychological pressure was growing very quickly in this category. It was the matter of honor for KAMAZ-master team to win on their native soil. As a result Firdaus Kabirov was the first to cross the finish line. The winner of last Dakar was driving very fast and finished the prologue for 2 min 31 sec, his result differs just 22 sec from the best result in the car category. Analysis of results immediately reminds us predictions of specialists, they were sure that there will be a hot contest in this category. And indeed the orange Iveco truck of Gerard De Rooy is just 2 seconds behind of Firdaus, and Loprais’s Tatra lose him 3 seconds.
Al Attiyah and De Rooy first leaders

Nasser Al Attiyah, the new Volkswagen recruit, feels comfortable with his off-road Race Touareg. Today he got one more victory for the team. The Qatari pilot won the first special in 01 hour 10 minutes and 15 seconds and left behind his three teammates. Gerard de Rooy took the lead over all the local Kamaz in the truck race.

During interviews in Kazan Al Attiyah noticed how important the victory was for him. In BMW X-Raid, his previous team, Nasser was well known with his will for victory and it looks like on the new place his fighting spirit even increase. Today, on a high speed stage Nasser left behind Mark Miller easily and, in spite of dusty tail, pass ahead Carlos Sainz and Giniel De Villiers. After six special stages in Brazil Nasser scores a new victory in Russia!

On this stage Giniel De Villiers decided to drive more quietly after a 8 months break since his Dakar victory. In addition he got into a hole in the very start of the stage and got some electronical problem with his car. That way, the Dakar winner finished the stage with 4th result.

In the same time the 5th place of the day showed an exciting battle Aleksey Berkut twice champion of Russia in rally, and French Christian Lavieille. The Frenchman eventually took a 25’’ lead over the Russian with a strong finish.

Philippe Gache wanted to be part of that 5th row battle as well but mechanical problems threw back the pilot-engineer from the Top 5.

The team KAMAZ-master wasn’t successful today on their own soil. After a deceiving Dakar 2009, where he was just 3rd, Gerard De Rooy has done his best to gain revenge here, in Russia with his completely new Iveco truck. Everything went well and he won the stage. Russian Vladimir Chagin finish just after De Rooy and ended up the best among the KAMAZ-master. Ales Loprais finished 3rd, 4 minutes and 54 seconds after De Rooy, and proves the ability of his Tatra to fight for the overall victory.
Al Attiyah keeps the lead as Chagin takes it from De Rooy !

The battle is severe between the two Volkswagen of Nasser Al Attiyah and Carlos Sainz for the leadership of the race. The Qatari is still ahead after winning the first SS of the day while Sainz stay close only just on 3 minutes 56 seconds behind. In the trucks race, Vladimir Chagin took the lead overall from the Holland challenger Gerard De Rooy winning both SS today.

Qatari pilot Nasser Al Attiyah’s ambitions are clear for everybody. To win the Silk Way rally he choose to push from the beginning in Kazan. From the first start he has shown confidence and fast driving. After his victory in Bouguruslan the Qatari had to keep his advantage without taking to much risk on a two specials day. To add to the difficulty, Al Attiyah had to start in front of the field right before Spanish Carlos Sainz. In the morning 116 km long stage, Nasser not only came in first, but also increase the gap to 1 minute 6 seconds.

The route was still quite rough and in some areas very narrow on the second special of the day where Carlos Sainz managed to turn into “Al Matador” again ! After midday, just before leaving Russia he won the special, but with only a 3 seconds advantage that didn’t allow him to won the day overall. But as we know, the taste of a victory might excite the Spanish, especially as tomorrow’s stage in Kazakhstan is the longest and the most important in this race.

The next stage – 580 km of special from Ouralsk to Beyneu will probably make the situation clearer for the 5th place battle. As the four first places are strongly consolidate by the Volkswagens, who will get the 5th interests supporters not less than the competitors. Christian Lavieille can grab the 5th row, it looks very possible in spite of the close competition with Mathias Kahle and Aleksey Bercut, who have 6th and 7th places overall.

One more battle continues in the trucks race between Vladimir Chagin and Gerard De Rooy. The crew of KAMAZ-master won both stages of today and took the lead overall. In the first SS the King grabbed just 17 seconds from De Rooy, but in the second one he overcomes the Holland team by 2 minutes and 34 seconds. After the main challengers came one more KAMAZ-master crew, Firdaus Kabirov who forced out Ales Loprais from the Top 3.

On the route to Beyneu Carlos Sainz was the best on the longest stage of the Silk Way rally and reduce his lag with Nasser Al Attiyah. But the Qatari still the leader. In truck race Firdaus Kabirov pull out the victory from De Rooy and now comes very close to Chadin.

At the same time as stages become longer and longer, the pilots have to use extra special tactics. We are definitely on a real off-road rally. A real fight strike up between Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al Attiyah. Spanish pilot pull out the win from Qatari but it doesn’t affected the overall ranking, Nasser is still ahead. But fact is fact – on the longest special of the rally Sainz was the quickest. Certainly Al Matador benefited of one puncture of his rival. Starting tomorrow it requires maximum risk if he wants to win the race.

Christian Lavieille feels quite confident at the moment in the 5th place fight. Today he showed the best result on the stage with two sand paths and he lost two of his main competitors: Aleksey Bercut, who lost 40 min and Andre Birukov, who dropped out of the race because of an accident. Among his closest pursuers Philippe Gache and Matias Kahle had a good race and will give him good competition.

The trucks, prepared by KAMAZ-master do not stand down to cars. The winner of the day in the trucks race, Firdaus Kabirov was just quicker than Christian Lavieille ! Now he is second overall, losing only 2’33” to Vladimir Chagin. Gerard De Rooy finished today with the third place and has the third position in general, and as his lagging increased, his mission becoming almost impossible. The mission of Ales Loprais even less accessible, now his gap with the podium is more than half an hour.
Giniel De Villiers won today’s stage and Nasser Al Attiyah increased his lead on the overall standing. Vladimir Chagin in the other way lost any chance to win in the trucks race. The crew of KAMAZ-master lost a wheel 7 km before the finish.

Everything is going well for the Volkswagens! Some people keep being amazed by Nasser Al Attiyah’s risky driving but he is still confident and keeps pushing. On the 5th stage the Qatari attacked Sainz again. Starting on the 3rd row he made up a simple plan. At first, overtake Mark Miller and then get after Carlos Sainz, who opened route today. Plan had been completed apart from a little puncture. But he ends up with an extra advantage of 4 minutes. In addition tomorrow’s stage, 514 km long on the way to Turkmenbashi, will be open by Giniel De Villiers, so it makes the task for Nasser even easier. Today South African started the 4th and won 7 seconds faster than Al Attiyah.

Candidates for the 5 place had much more troubles, many of them couldn’t fulfill their plan. Up to this morning Christian Lavieille was considered the most likely candidate to gain the 5th row, he was leading the pack by quite a lot. But he wasn’t lucky enough, his transmission broke down and Lavieille had to drop out of the race. Phillipe Gache, who showed not such bad result yesterday, fall as a victim as well: the engine of his buggy caught fire on the route. But all that benefited to Mattias Kahle, whose main competitor becomes Aleksey Bercut, 21 minutes behind him.

Big trouble happened in the trucks race as well – Vladimir Chagin got a big problem. In the morning he leaded the race and showed the best time on the CP1 and had really good chance to increase his leading overall. But 7 km to the finish Chagin lost a wheel from his Kamaz. Even with Ilgizar Mardeev’s help the King crossed the finish line two hours laters.
Firdaus Kabirov, the Dakar champion, is now leading the race. On the second place, De Rooy, is 27 minutes behing the KAMAZ-master crew. Ales Loprais is taking advantage of Chagin’s wheel and Mardeev stop to help his teammate and is now 3rd overall.

Carlos Sainz won today his second SS on the Silk Way Rally but didn’t managed to do much better than Nasser Al Attiyah, who is still leading overall. Vladimir Chagin pulled out the victory on the stage, but it doesn’t influence the overall standing.

Carlos Sainz keeps looking for a weak point in his main competitor but has not found it yet. The two times WRC champion wins the stage by 3’13 but was leading much more at CP2 when Al Attiyah decided it was time to step on it and not let the Spanish go. He passed Sainz then and went ahead. Tomorrow there will be 360 km of SS to Balkanabad and 345 km on Saturday for Sainz to try to overtake Al Attiyah.

As long as current events run unpredictable, nobody can say who will get the 5th place. Yesterday, Christian Lavieille had to set back because of his broken transmission. Later in the evening he was told he could start the 6th stage with a big penalty that made him one before last on the overall ranking. Today, Matthias Kahle overturned on his car and took 3 hours to repair. He is out of the 5th spot race. For a long time, Bernard Errandonea was the favorite among “non VW”, but his buggy couldn’t bear it: on km 317 of the special his cardan broke. So we end up with two Russians crews for the spot – Aleksey Bercut and Ruslan Misikov. Bercut’s Mitsubishi started today 12 min earlier than Misikov, but soon got stuck in the dunes. So now, Nart Time’s pilot is the favourite for the “unlucky” 5th spot !

In the trucks race, after a horrible day yesterday where he lost 3 hours and his chances at the final victory, KAMAZ-master Vladimir Chagin showed fearless driving again. The King got the best time on the SS, winning 27 minutes before Firdaus Kabirov, but it doesn’t change anything at the overall standing. Kabirov takes the second place of the stage and conforts his lead with 8 more minutes to Gerard De Rooy. A second Kamaz might jump on the podium at the end of the week with Ilgizar Mardeev who came back so strongly on Loprais today that he is now 1 minute ahead at the 3rd place.
Sainz and Kabirov first Silk Way rally winners

Nasser Al Attiyah lost the Silk Way 100km from the arrival ! His Race Touareg flipped on an oued and he let Carlos Sainz take the lead of the race. The exceptional presence of the Presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan at the start tomorrow morning in Turkmenbashi changed the plans and tomorrow’s special will not count for the overall standing. After the 24km of SS, they will be in liaison until the podium in Ashgabat. Virdaus Kabirov wins the trucks race.

It’s very possible that the stage in Turkmenbashi will stay in the rally raid school books, along with the one at the Dakar 2003, when Stephan Peterhansel missed the victory because of Egyptian stone or Dakar 2009 where on the 13th stage Carlos Sainz had to leave the race because of an accident. Today Nasser Al Attiyah got into similar situation. On km 283 of the route, in the moment he went through an oued, Nasser Al Attiyah flipped his Race Touareg on his roof. Obviously an accident Nasser will remember for a while as well as his navigator Timo Golchak. Maybe after this lost Nasser will make some conclusions, people saying his driving is too extreme.

Some time ago it seemed that the whole podium was going to be monopolized by KAMAZ-master in the trucks race. But the trio which will be on the podium shows a more realistic situation. Ales Loprais, who came to Russsia to win, faced during this week a lot of knocks of the wood and almost lost any hope. He got today’s best time of the stage, and proved his ambition is not groundless. He finishes third overall. Gerard De Rooy, who felt from time to time lack of luck as well, was able to test his new Iveco truck. In spite of challengers he managed to take the second place, what was fully deserved. Kamaz-Master Firdaus Kabirov quite not worried since Chagin’s incident, wins the race as expected on his own soil.

34 cars and 16 trucks made it to Ashgabad to the finish of the first Silk Way Rally. Carlos Sainz in the car race and Firdaus Kabirov in the trucks race won overall after a great week of fighting and challenges among the leaders. Pure rally raid !

For a first edition of a rally that will probably become one of the most popular in the rally raid world, the morning ceremony of the last stage was amazing. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev all met in Turkmenbashi, on the beach of Kaspian sea, to celebrate the birth of this new event and to greet the crews.

At the start in Kazan 8 days ago and 4800km away, everybody knew about the VW victory but nobody expected such an intensive battle. Very soon the competition between the 4 teammates turned into a duel between Nasser Al Attiyh and Carlos Sainz. Persistence and pushing from Carlos made the Qatari push too hard. Al Attiyah lost everything on the last stage, when he flipped his car and had to quit. Looks like “El Matador” becomes the main challenger for the podium on the next Dakar.

Even more changes happened in the “non VW” category. Experienced racers like Christian Lavieille, Philippe Gache and Matthias Kahle faced huge problems. Eventually, after the three VW left, we find two Russian pilots, Ruslan Misikov and Iliya Kuznetsov.

The president of Russia was glad with the performances of KAMAZ-master, with four KAMAZ trucks into Top 6. Firdaus Kabirov became the winner overall. Vladimir Chagin, who after an accident on the route lost any chance for the victory. Gerard De Rooy and Ales Loprais managed to get the place on the podium and prove they can compete with Kamaz. But KAMAZ-master can be proud of young talents like Eduard Nikolaev, who was deserving competitor and took 4th place overall.